New York City Mayor Eric Adams Charged With Federal Crimes

Federal prosecutors indicted New York Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday, The New York Times and other media outlets reported, casting doubt on the moderate Democrat’s future as chief executive of the country’s largest city.

The indictment is still sealed, so the nature of the charges is not yet known, according to the Times.

Adams responded to the charges in a pre-recorded video that anticipated his possible indictment.

“My fellow New Yorkers, it is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes,” Adams said. “If so, these charges will be entirely false, based on lies, but they would not be surprising.”

“I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit,” he added.

The charges represent a remarkable turn of fortune for Adams, a former New York Police Department captain whose victorious public safety-focused campaign earned him national recognition as a sign of shifting current within his party. Adams, the city’s second Black mayor, went so far as to describe himself as the “future of the Democratic Party.”

He can now claim a different sort of distinction: The first New York City mayor to be indicted.

As both a candidate and an elected official, Adams is perhaps best known as a larger-than-life cheerleader for the Big Apple ― a nightlife aficionado who took to using Alicia Keys’ “New York” as his intro music at public appearances.

But Adams’ roots in Brooklyn’s party patronage system and facility with transactional, interest-group politicking ― the kind that often has a seedy underside — played as much a role in his election as his trademark “swagger.”

He took with him to City Hall his old machine-style habits, testing the bounds of ethics laws, hiring friends with shady pasts and allegedly presiding over a culture of roguish behavior.

The U.S. Department of Justice had been investigating whether Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign colluded with the Turkish government to funnel him illegal foreign donations. The probe came into public view in November, when federal agents first seized the electronic devices of an Adams campaign aide in charge of fundraising, and then Adams’ own phones.

A series of additional scandals have since consumed Adams’ mayoralty. Federal prosecutors investigated top Adams administration officials for charges that include alleged bribery and shakedown schemes. The steady drip of federal raids and rumored indictments has spurred the resignation of a host of top officials. In the past two weeks alone, Adams’ schools chancellor, health commissioner, police commissioner and City Hall attorney have all left.

A former female colleague of Adams’ while he was in the New York Police Department is also suing him for sexual assault she says he perpetrated in 1993.

As Adams’ troubles have mounted, he has maintained that he is laser-focused on running the city, which has been dealing with continued affordability challenges for residents and the integration of more than 210,000 asylum seekers who have arrived since 2022.

But there is already a growing field of Democrats challenging Adams in the mayoral primary in June 2025, including state Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos, city Comptroller Brad Lander and former Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, perhaps the most influential progressive in New York City, called for Adams to resign on Wednesday.

“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” she posted on X, citing the “flood” of investigations and resignations.

Myrie, Lander and Stringer all called on Adams to resign on Wednesday night, while Ramos issued a critical statement that stopped short of demanding his exit.

Perhaps more notably, New York City Councilman Bob Holden, a conservative Democrat aligned with Adams on a number of issues, also called on Adams to resign.

“While [the mayor] is presumed innocent until proven guilty, there is no way he can effectively lead with this cloud hanging over him,” he tweeted on X.